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Chapter 7 - Page 1
Start
Phase 1
Package /
Concept Design
Phase 2
Package
Refinement
Create
Styling Concept
Modify Package/
Styling / Design
Modify Phase 1
Shell Model
Steel Supplier
and Part Supplier
Input
Modify Design
Material / Thickness
Adjustement
Meets
Static
Targets
Yes
No
Meets
Static/Crash
Targets
Create / Modify
Phase 2 Crash Model
Yes
Meets
Static
Targets
Create / Modify
Phase 2 Shell Model
Material / Thickness
Selection,
Design Modification
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
Parts Feasible
Build of First
Test Unit
Meets
Static / Crash
Targets
Yes
Build of Final
Demonstration Hardware
Figure 7.1.1-1
Chapter 7 - Page 2
Category
140 MPa
Mild Steel
210 MPa
280 MPa
350 MPa
420 MPa
This definition was chosen in order to standardize the steel grade definitions for the
ULSAB Consortium member companies since many countries are involved and the
standards are not the same around the world. This has to be seen together with the
goal that the ULSAB body structure could be built in every region of the world where
steel is available. This is also the reason that the suppliers of the material for the
DHs are kept anonymous within the ULSAB program.
The most suitable material for each part application was chosen with the assistance
of experts from the steel suppliers. This process was especially important for the
ultra high strength steel because of its more critical forming behavior. Different
materials such as dual phase (DP) steels are included in this group of ultra high
strength material parts.
There are several ways to achieve the 280 MPa yield strength level according to the
above definition. This could be done by using microalloyed high strength steel,
bake hardening or even dual phase steel. However it is achieved, the minimum
yield strength for the finished part has to be 280 MPa in each area of the part.
Other material qualities and material types could achieve the same or similar
results; therefore, several factors affected material selection including material
performance and availability.
Chapter 7 - Page 3
Chapter 7 - Page 4
Every delivered material had to be tested at the supplying source before it was
shipped to the part manufacturer. A test report accompanied the material until the
parts are finished. This is the basis for the Advanced Quality Planning (AQP) report
that was performed by the ULSAB Consortium. The test results are also considered
for welding parameter evaluation at the prototype shop.
Chapter 7 - Page 5
Chapter 7 - Page 6
This sandwich material shares many of the same processing attributes with steel
sheets, like deep drawing, shear cutting, bonding, etc. But, unfortunately, it cannot
be welded. Even mechanical joining like riveting, clinching or screwing, can be a
problem when the material has to go through the paint-baking oven. The core
material is softened by the heat and flows away from the area where a pretension
from a screw is applied. This may lead to a loss in joining strength.
Therefore, applications used in the ULSAB Phase 2 design were with parts made
from sandwich material that did not go through the oven. The spare tire tub is
designed as a prepainted module, preassembled with spare tire and tools. This
module will be dropped into place and bonded to the structure during the final
assembly of the vehicle. No additional heat has to be applied. Another application
of sandwich material is the dash panel insert, which was bolted and bonded into the
panel dash during final vehicle assembly.
Chapter 7 - Page 7
Because there was no application similar to the spare tire tub in the past, an
extensive forming simulation was performed on this part. Once the design was
adjusted using the results of the simulation, there were no major concerns about the
feasibility of the spare tire tub. After a small refinement of the best drawable radius,
the parts were determined to be manufacturable with no problems.
Furthermore, a physical test with the spare tire tub was performed to check the
fatigue behavior of this material for the application. Parts from the described
sandwich material were made and compared to parts made from solid steel sheets
of 0.7 mm thickness. A picture of the test installation is shown below in Fig.
7.2.2.4-2.
Chapter 7 - Page 8
The load signal that was applied was taken from Porsches proving ground and
adjusted to the situation of the ULSAB. The test concluded there are no restrictions
for the use of the sandwich material for the proposed application when it is
compared to a conventional design using a 0.7 mm solid steel sheet.
The parts that were designed for the ULSAB could be made up to 50% lighter than
those made of solid steel under similar dimensional and functional conditions. But,
higher costs for the sandwich material have to be taken into consideration as
compared to normal coated steel sheets.
Chapter 7 - Page 9
Chapter 7 - Page 10
The non-vacuum electron beam welding process is similar to laser welding in the
result of the weld seam geometry. This is due to the fact that it is a non-contact
process as well. The beam is a mass beam and the kinetic energy of this beam is
used for heating the material. The beam can be focused by a magnetic spool and
the diameter can be adjusted easily. The advantage of this process compared to
laser is the increased efficiency of about 90% compared to 10% when using laser.
But a disadvantage is that the electron beam creates x - rays. This influences the
machine design dramatically regarding total investment and material handling.
Therefore this process is not used extensively up to now.
Mash seam welding needs a narrow overlapping of the sheets which have to be
welded. The material in this area becomes doughy, not really fluid. During the
welding process the current flows from one electrode to the other one and by
resistance heating the sheet material becomes doughy. The electrode force then
mashes the weld area and the sheets are joined together in this way. This light
overlap and the joining process by force loaded electrodes results in a weld zone
between 2.5 and 3.0 mm. The coating maybe is affected in this zone negatively.
Furthermore, experience has shown that the surface of the weld zone, where little
caves and pinchers occur due to the mash welding process, may not achieve the
required corrosion resistance.
The laser welding process is used more and more widely. It is a non-contact
welding process, and the heat is brought into the material by a coherent light with
high energy density. In this way a very narrow weld zone can be achieved. There is
almost no influence on the corrosion resistance when coated material is used. The
main critical point on this process is without any doubt the need for very precisely
prepared edges of the sheet. But this problem could be overcome by todays
available precise cutting technologies or advanced fixing and clamping devices.
One of the biggest advantages is the possibility of a non-linear weld line layout.
Different combinations of laser sources and clamping devices are on the market
today. In many cases the sheets are moved relative to the fixed laser beam. This
may lead to a reduction of the cycle time of the whole process.
Chapter 7 - Page 11
Together with the fact that most of the newest installations for welding blanks are
laser equipped devices, and the positive experience of PES, has lead to the
decision to use laser welded tailored blanks on the ULSAB body structure
exclusively. The blanks were produced at different locations using different
equipment from the whole range of possible installations. The weld lines were
controlled during the joining process to maintain the following features:
All of these lead to the high quality of todays tailor welded blanks.
Chapter 7 - Page 12
The weld line layout is shown in the following pages for each part.
1.6
1.5 (350 MPa) (350 MPa) 2.0 (350 MPa)
1.6
(350 MPa)
Chapter 7 - Page 13
1.5
(350 MPa)
Chapter 7 - Page 14
Chapter 7 - Page 15
Figure 7.3.3.-1 For the Economic Analysis cost calculation purposes, the production blank
layout for the tailor welded blank parts was developed.
7.4. Hydroforming
7.4.1. General Process Description
Today, tubular hydroforming is a well-established process in automotive
manufacturing. When ULSAB Phase 1 began several years ago and hydroforming
was chosen as the manufacturing process for the side roof rail, the technology was
being used mainly for exhaust pipes and some front cradles. These had a much
smaller diameter-to-thickness ratio compared to the ULSAB side roof rail. But with
the focus on mass savings, it was assumed that hydroforming could reduce the
number of parts while helping to optimize available package space.
Chapter 7 - Page 16
The hyroforming process is described very simply as: put a tube between a lower
and an upper die, close the die, fill the tube with water and increase the internal
pressure in order to force the tube to expand into the shape of the die. However,
several things must be taken into consideration within this process technology. This
method will work only for straight tubes. In all other cases the tube has to be prebent or preformed depending on the final shape. The various steps necessary for
the manufacturing of the ULSAB side roof rail will be explained in the next section.
7.4.2. Benefit for the Project
As explained in the Phase 1 report, the use of hydroformed parts instead of
conventionally formed and spot-welded structures have certain apparent
advantages. Because of the absence of flanges, available space could be utilized
with higher efficiency (bigger cross sections were achievable). The homogeneous
hydroformed parts also provide an improved load flow in comparison to other
structural members made of several parts joined by spot welding. The side roof rail
represents a significant structural member in the ULSAB structure and provides an
optimal load distribution from the A-pillar along the roof into the B and C-pillar. This
is true for the static as well as for the dynamic behavior of the body structure. Also
the side impact and the rear crash support is affected positively. The interior of the
vehicle is well protected by the roll bar design of these two structural members
integrated into the body structure.
The hydroformed parts described in ULSAB Phase 1 already have led to similar
applications in vehicles that are on the road today. There is a high potential for
further steel applications on comparable parts that are loaded with high forces.
Other opportunities for hydroformed steel structures will be in the area of protection
systems for convertibles.
Chapter 7 - Page 17
As a result of this analysis the design of the side roof rail was modified so that
some bending radii were softened. Also some other areas were slightly changed in
order to prevent excessive material thinning or cracking during the forming process.
The forming simulation also led to the decision of using a separate preforming tool
(described in Sec. 7.4.5).
Chapter 7 - Page 18
Chapter 7 - Page 19
For the prebending process, which requires a tube with small tolerances and a
finished part with high strength, the following tube specifications were created:
Quality
Feature:
Material:
Yield Strength:
Total Elongation:
Uniform Elongation:
r - Value:
Welding Requirements
Welding Process:
Laser- or high-frequency welding
Weld Seam Area:
Outside of tube: Undercut 0.0 mm, no expansion
Inside of Tube: Undercut < 0.2 mm, no expansion
No mismatch of edges
Free of any porosity
Strength similar to base material
Chapter 7 - Page 20
Tube
Section A - A
Moving direction of
outer tool part
Chapter 7 - Page 21
Chapter 7 - Page 22
The final step is the hydroforming process itself. During the down movement of the
upper half of the die there is another area preformed again (under low internal
pressure) on the tube. This must be done because the hydroforming process is
very sensitive to die locking. Once the die is finally closed, the internal pressure is
increased and the side roof rail tube is calibrated into its final shape. The pressure
has to be raised to 900 bar for the side roof rail in order to set the final shape of the
part. This required a closing force of about 3200 tons. This internal calibration
pressure was higher than predicted by calculation and forming simulation. A picture
of the hydroforming tool is shown in Fig. 7.4.5-4.
Chapter 7 - Page 23
7.4.6. Results
Hydroforming has never been used previously to form a high strength steel tube
with such a high diameter-to-wall-thickness ratio. Nevertheless the goal to
manufacture the side roof rails was achieved. There is still room for improvement,
but the main problems related to the bending and preforming operations were
resolved. Hydroforming will be only a calibration operation if all-important steps
before this were optimized. With the experience gained from the ULSAB Phase 2,
producing similar hydroformed applications should be easier in the future.
Chapter 7 - Page 24
Blankholder Cylinder
Slide
Blankholder
Moving Balster
Chapter 7 - Page 25
In the second stage, the die is closed and the blankholder clamps the blank. The
die punch has a defined, part specific regress against the clamped blank, as in
figure 7.5.1-2. A pressure intensifier is used to introduce the water emulsion into
the water box, where a pre-set pressure is generated. The blank is inflated in a
controlled manner and stretched over the complete area until it is pressed against
the punch. This is the reason why the process is called active hydromechanical
sheet metal forming. Forming with fluids (or flexible rubber layers) is well known
already, but previously there was no forming in the opposite direction within those
processes. The plastic elongation produces a work-hardening effect, especially in
the center of the part. This effect significantly improves the dent resistance of the
formed part.
Chapter 7 - Page 26
Once the first plastic elongation process is done, the draw punch is moved
downward, as in figure 7.5.1-3. At the same time, the emulsion is evacuated from
the water box and the pressure of the fluid is lowered in a controlled process. After
completion of the drawing operation, pressure is increased once more in order to
calibrate the part into the final shape. The later visible surface of the part (outer
side) is turned towards the active fluid medium. There is no contact to metal on this
surface and an excellent surface quality of the part was achieved.
Chapter 7 - Page 27
Chapter 7 - Page 28
and the conventionally used second half of the die makes the result of the
simulation very reliable. Furthermore, the process parameters, (e.g., preforming
pressure, etc.) could be easily adjusted.
Chapter 7 - Page 29
7.5.4. Results
Roof panels for the ULSAB could be manufactured by using the active
hydromechanical sheet metal forming process. Different material qualities, like
isotropic, IF and bake-hardening types, were formed successfully. Due to the workhardening effect, which was applied through the above-described process, the sheet
thickness of the roof panel could be lowered to 0.7 mm, while the dent resistance
requirements were still met.
In order to limit the needed locking force of the press, the flange radii should be
designed not too small. The radii are directly related to the needed pressure during
the final forming operation, and if too small lead to an uneconomic high-locking
force/press size. The surface quality on the visible side of the ULSAB roof panel,
which was not in contact with any metal tool, was very high compared to
conventional formed (prototype) parts.
Chapter 7 - Page 30